Iowa Caucus Guy’s Presidential Election Blog

I thought with a Republican in the White House, I might get by without talking about the ubiquitous Bob Vander Plaats. I won't. Vander Plaats leads an organization in Iowa called The Family Leader and quite frankly, to break rule #1 (Never speak ill of the Caucus) is a reason that reality is that sometimes a very small group helps make big national decisions. Vander Plaats appeared to be just a marginal Iowa character- the perennial far right candidate governor topping out at 30-40% of the primary vote. Instead, he set out to be a kingmaker. All glory be to God, but Bob thinks quite a bit of himself too. Aspiring to be a Jerry Falwell or Ralph Reed, his results have been mixed at best. Indeed, he likely wakes up at night while similar Iowa loudmouths like Sam Clovis and Steve Deace went to bigger things. One can’t blame BVP as he got off to a hot start, backing Mike Huckabee, who had a sizable Caucus Night victory over strong competition from McCain, Romney and ...

Many moons ago, I got on Howard Dean for President’s mailing list. I was younger and brand new in town. I likely would have done anything to help Dean on his path. That I never heard word one back from The Dean Camp is a better explanation of why he imploded than any post-Caucus scream. In any case, at a National level, Dean knew he had a movement and his mailing list and organization became Democracy For America , a progressive voice that can take credit for electing Ned Lamont and Al Franken. To get a feel for DFA, in 2016, the groups online poll supported Bernie Sanders with an overwhelming 88% of the vote. So what to take from the 2020 poll? I doubt much, but perhaps a real clue where those on the Left have their hearts. Since I get way too interested, here are results of the DFA Iowa poll Sanders 43.7% Buttigieg 10.2% Warren 9.9% Gravel 7.6% Biden 6.3% Yang, Harris , Gabbard 3.3% O’Rourke, Booker 2.3% Klobuchar 1.3 Inslee, Williamson, Delaney <1%...

One of the funnest stories this cycle has been the Caucus Book Club. I meant to write about it this when it was first reported in the Register in March. However, there was some buzz this past weekend when CBS and NPR picked up the story so I figured I better get in on the action The club’s 583 members have 14 books on their reading list so far. The total assignment tops 3,000 pages, and more tomes are expected as new candidates join the race. The club's plan is to read one book every three weeks.  The initial reading list was arranged in alphabetical order — from Booker to Yang — among the candidates who were running on March 1. That’s when Andrea Phillips of Ankeny, the Iowa Democratic Party’s vice chair, launched the club. The Register at the time pointed out that the group was starting with Cory Booker (well, there was no Rubin Askew or Bruce Babbitt, so the first name on the list was Joe Biden, who had not announced and thus w...

Identity. It’s important. It can get confusing some times. I turn on TruTV to watch March College Basketball, SyFy to watch Pro Wrestling, the History Channel to watch modern day pawn shops, and comedy shows for political comentary. Still, Blockbuster is out of business because they were a DVD/VHS business, but Netflix thrives because it is a Movie business. Wait, where am I going with this?  Let’s start again. I don't know, but with countless legitimate news services out there and blogs, I know I won't be the definitve word.  So, I focus on the small part of the world I have dominion over. Hmmm..what  I have a good dozen Des Moines Register articles about recent candidate visits, and believe me there are a lot of candidates and believe me, they visit a lot.  I have been meaning to write something up but it’s already been said. My focus often tends to be on the weird, so with that in mind, I am not all things for all people.  I am here fo...

have written about election cycles since at least 2004 for about a dozen readers. This year with the power of twitter, I have literally 100s of people reading my words. What a country! Ok, I was a child of the 80s. You have to excuse my lame jokes. My goal is of course to lean toward the frivolity. I wish I could do more, but I simply don’t have the time, and to be honest, my heart tends to lean towards the fun stories like “ Marco Rubio hits a kid in the face with a football ”. In any case, I am hardly an expert, but just due to geographical happenstance, I pick up on some local stories that a nationwide audience misses out on. So with that said, I read an article last month that will probably be the biggest thing to come out of April 2019. This may have bigger ramifications than even Joe Biden’s announcement to run for President a third time. I read it in the local alt-newspaper and it has been otherwise under-reported, and surprisingly concerns Andrew Yan...

Hey, it’s the first campaign billboard of the season. Hey, with 20+ candidates, I am surprised it took this long. Pretty basic and drawing attention to Tulsi’s military record (which seems to be one of the reasons people like Mayor Pete). I don’t remember a paid billboard since Jeb! bought one on an electronic rotating display up the street. I don’t mean to bring that up to point out the seeming futility of the situation of buying ad space and it being ineffective, but... I do occasionally see an old Clinton-Kaine board on one of my alternate routes to work. Funny to see it, since even though I love this stuff, I am not exactly sure I could have told you who Clinton’s running mate was. I haven’t thought of Tim Kaine since 2016. Tulsi isn’t popular with Dems but she is starting to show up in my social media interactions. She actually seems popular with those on the Right side of things. It goes back to what I have been saying about her and my suggestion...